How do you perform your postcard searches?

[lbstamps]

As a concerned seller of postcards, I'm always interested in hearing from buyers in how they search for postcards on ebay. My question for the day is, Do you find the search feature robust or are there features missing that would greatly help in your search?

From a sellers perspective, when I look at a postcard, I generally can immediately see four categories that the postcard can be listed under.  Obviouly I can't afford to list under all of the categories, so I must pick the best match.

Beside's the four defined categories, I can see multiple other topics or attributes that are not pre-defined.  Here I must include such items in the listing themselves, but if the search does not included the advanced options, those terms are worthless.

Anyone's thoughts?

Larry

[ragbutter]

Hi Larry:

Personally - when I search for a postcard I want I search first in the Postcard category ( main category ) for whatever it is I am looking for - such as Oasis Restaurant Hickory NC. If I don't find anything there, I search All Categories on eBay. I have found postcards I was looking for in the strangest of places.

As a seller- I used to list in multiple categories and have found it to be a terrific waste of money.

[ragbutter]

I meant to add - I'm not really so sure it matters what category you list under. I know, if I really want a postcard - I will probably find it, no matter where it is. There are of course exceptions to the rule - such as real photos. I find myself quite frequently browsing the RPPC > Ohter category, just for fun.

[4166mcdonnell]

Insofar as the dilemma is concerned of being confronted with 4 equally eligible categories to list postcards under, like you, I find the costs associated of using multiple categories for something like postcards prohbitively expensive. The strategy I went for as a result was to choose one category out of the possiblities and if the card went unsold I changed the relist category to see what would happen.

A good example from my own experience was a spectacularly beautiful postcard showing an outlook over the Alps in Salzburg, Austria. Listing it under the most obvious category of Austria resulted in no sale. Relisting it under mountains and landscapes also turned up empty. When I relisted it again I changed the title from simply referrring to the location to something along the lines of "Old Volkswagen cars and campers at outlook Salzburg, Austria" and changed the category to automobiles and once again used the starting price of $0.99. All of a sudden I saw a very different result. A couple of equally determined parties feverishly tried to outbid each other in the last minutes and the winning bid (from a collector in Japan) went over $5.00. Go figure, a card with a spectacular mountain view sold because I changed tracks and promoted the vehicles shown on it. I did so because of my own love of European cars, double decker buses and old American classic cars and wondered if others felt the same way. Turns out I was not alone.

Hope this example proves helpful and encouraging for any others confronted with the multi-category dilemma.

[davidgill5018]

Larry-

I'm not sure what you mean exactly about the four categories...you might explain that.  Postcards really shouldn't be in PAPER or PHOTO or ANTIQUES, but some silly people do that on occasion.  

\(There are other sorts of thing that are much more perplexing...like concert programs...they  might show up in MUSIC MEMORIBILIA or COLLECTIBLES or BOOKS MAGAZINES.)

I collect postcards of architecture, buildings, places...the very straight forward city view genre.  Under POSTCARD everything I'm looking for is in US STATES CITIES & TOWNS or INTERNATIONAL CITIES AND TOWNS.  I'm generally assuming that anything that might be in the other subcategories under POSTCARD will also be listed in some CITY or TOWN.  I do often wonder if some SELLERS are doing it another way, but subcategories like ARCHITECTURE or UNIVERSITIES are usually sparsly populated AND/or have random items in them.

Today, I also wrote a rant about how WRITE TITLES for listing POSTCARDS that might of interest.   But I put it SELLER CENTRAL.  I try to repost it in this group.